May 24 The Cost of Living

When you're moving to a new city or country it can be hard to figure out how much you can afford to spend on rent. While common wisdom says that you shouldn't pay more than 35% of your income in rent, in a place like New York it is not uncommon for residents to spend up to 60%. On the other hand, there are some savings connected to living in New York too. For example, most people here use public transport and save on car and fuel costs.

So how can you find out what to expect, financially, when moving to a different place? Luckily there is Expatistan where you can go and enter your current location and the place you're moving to. The website will then show you the comparative costs of things like "Transportation", "Housing" and "Entertainment". The results are based on user submitted data and anyone can contribute by entering the price of e.g. 12 eggs or a pair of trainers.

Most locations have a lot of data and display pretty accurate results. ven when you're not relocating, it's pretty interesting to compare different places. Who would've thought for example that "Personal Care" is 37% more expensive in Charleston, SC compared to NYC? On the other hand, it's no surprise that housing costs in Berlin, Germany are 58% lower than in New York.

Expatistan is a really useful tool for you relocation, just as we hope to be. Check it out for yourself!